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Jack Dorsey: Technology Is Craft, Anarchy And Wabi-Sabi

Technology products are not about just bits and bytes, but also about art and craftsmanship for Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and cofounder and head of product at Twitter.

Dorsey, who once wanted to illustrate flowers and design jeans, spoke about his human-focused philosophy of product design and technology at the GigaOm Roadmap conference in San Francisco Thursday. It showed Dorsey’s deep interest in traditional ideas of design and craft, which is notable considering Dorsey heads two of the hottest and fastest growing technology companies.

“The arc that I’m most fascinated by is where technology reminds us of our own humanness,” Dorsey said. “It encourages us to use what we already have. The amazing thing about Twitter is you use it every day and it makes the world feel very small… You can converse with and talk with anyone in the world… It allows people to make better decisions. We’ve never had access to this amazing wealth of information at our fingertips.” Both Square and Twitter are about encouraging human interaction and tools for people to connect globally, Dorsey said. “Both are great at encouraging more human face-to-face interaction. Both are great at giving global tools that allow individuals to start immediately.”

In discussing Twitter’s effect on the Iran protests, Dorsey said he didn’t have much sense of Iran before the protests, but he recognized that Twitter brought out more understanding between people. ”Suddenly you have this rich context for what’s happening on the ground and how people are interacting with each other,” Dorsey said. “I firmly believe that the more of that understanding we can surface with technology, the more empathy (we have). When we have more empathy about… the struggles people go through every day… we have more understanding of what’s important in their lives and why it’s important.”

Asked how Twitter affects governments, Dorsey said Twitter is part of people creating their own “temporary autonomous zones,” he said, citing the anarchist thinker Hakim Bey. People can quickly create a group around any purpose and then quickly disperse he said, which can happen across many ideas or organizations. (A “tweetup” meeting is one example but a protest in Iran is another.)

To make Square’s staff focus on building a product that’s perfect for the user, Square starts by writing a narrative script, like a play, of how a user would use a product. Everyone from engineers to designers to marketing staff then focus on that script as a model. It’s part of Dorsey’s idea of focusing on the specifically human use of technology.

Dorsey also talked about his obsession with design and craftsmanship in creating products. He cited San Francisco-based Sightglass, a boutique coffee company that he supports, which focuses fanatically on details of its coffee and its cafe. “This builds business loyalty, devotion and love. When you start discovering small details that people obsess over, people fall in love even more.” Dorsey cited the Japanese design philosophy of “wabi sabi” as a model, which he says balances the ideas of sleek modernism with rustic “ zen-like chaos.” Another company he praised in this mold is New York-based Ernest Sewn jeans company.

For Twitter, Dorsey said the biggest challenge is enabling people anywhere to discover relevant things instantly. “With Twitter I believe the biggest work and biggest challenge ahead of us and the biggest opportunity and potential is for people being able to discover something that’s instantly relevant and meaningful where you are.”

For Square, Dorsey said his most exciting thing is the Card Case consumer payment service (story). “You can literally walk into Sightglass, order a cappuchino, the cashier can see my picture and name, I can enjoy it and walk out. Not once would I bring out my wallet or cash or a phone. Everything’s taken care of.”

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I love that Jack stressed the importance of design to a product! While design can sometimes be glossed over, it is really essential to the success of a product. Investing in design can truly help push the user over the top. I think Jack phrased it perfectly, that design will build a whole new level of customer “loyalty, devotion and love.”

Wabi-sabi is more of a philosophy than an aesthetic. It’s a world view that embraces imperfection and utility, and acknowledgment of the impermanence of everything.

With a wabi-sabi outlook, a chipped cup is not prized because it is “rustic” or “sleek” or “modern” or “chaotic.” It is valued because that chip is a testament to the usefulness, impermanence and imperfection of the vessel.

The way this is worded here makes it sound like you can buy wabi-sabi at the Pottery Barn! You can’t! It’s in your home, right now, decaying all around you. You’ve probably sent things loaded with wabi-sabi to Goodwill already because they weren’t “perfect” anymore. That crack in your iPhone’s case? Wabi-sabi! Those worn floorboards in the hallway? Wabi-sabi! That lopsided cup your child made you in pottery class? WABI-SABI!

For more info about wabi-sabi, read its wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

Or listen to this short talk I recorded: http://www.slideshare.net/CrowChick/wabisabi-the-beauty-of-imperfection-6594008